On this day in 1837, President Andrew Jackson appointed Alcée Louis La Branche to be the first diplomat from the United States to the Republic of Texas. As United States chargé d'affaires, La Branche...(Read More)

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PARKS, BENJAMIN F.

PARKS, BENJAMIN F. (ca. 1832–?). Benjamin F. Parks, Confederate officer, lawyer and farmer, was born in 1832 to George and Sarah Parks in Illinois. He was the second oldest of six children. By 1850 the family moved to Palestine, Anderson County, Texas, where his father worked as a farmer. Ten years later, Benjamin was living in a tavern in Palestine and practicing law.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Parks raised a company of infantry in Palestine and enlisted on February 1, 1862. Parks was elected captain of the company and the unit was mustered into service in the Confederate Army on March 6, 1862, as part of the Twenty-Second Texas Infantry Regiment, also known as "Hubbard's Regiment." Parks' unit served in the Trans-Mississippi Department and saw action in Louisiana and Arkansas including the conflicts of Young's Point and Jenkins' Ferry.

On January 17, 1864, Parks was promoted to the rank of major in the Twenty-Second Infantry. Following the actions at Jenkins' Ferry, Parks and his unit moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, and later to Hempstead, Texas. It was at Hempstead that the regiment disbanded and Parks surrendered along other Confederate forces under the command of Gen. E. Kirby Smith on May 26, 1865. On June 23, 1865, Parks was paroled by Union forces, however, it is unclear if he returned to Anderson County.